This car was really enjoyable to work on. The paint wasn't silly soft like some BMW's can be. It had it's fair share of buffer swirls, holograms, and my personal favorite, deeper circular scratches from some sort of contaminant, being drug all over the car by the dealership detailers. I was originally contacted about correcting some deeper wash marks that came from a dealer wash during a recent service.
The owner uses the two bucket method of washing with a grit guard and always hand washes. With this information I decided that a multi-step correction would be time well spent as I know the owner will do a good job maintaining the finish.
My process:
Wash with GC
Wheels with Wheel Brightener
Tires, wheel wells, and undercarriage with APC+ 4:1
Clay with mild blue and last touch 1:1
M105 via Makita @ 1200-1500-1200 and LC PFW pad
Ultimate Compound via DA @ speed 5 with Meguiar's yellow pad
M205 via DA @ speed 5 with Meguiar's Black pad
NXT via DA @ speed 3 with Meguiar's tan pad
Some befores:
Here you can see a couple holo's and while the paint has some shine it also lacks any real depth or sharpness of reflection
Some of the buffer swirls and deeper tick marks left by the dirty pad they used:
Car driven 3 hours for me to buff = BUGS!
Day one involved getting the car washed, clayed and multiple test spots.
Day two started with M105 via LC Purple Foamed Wool pads. The more I use these the more I like them. They are a good middle ground pad the removes defects better than foam polishing pads and leave the finish nicer than foam cutting pads.
In this shot the hood has been compounded while the fender has not. Raised areas of adjacent panels are taped off during compounding. In this particular case the fender has been taped where it meets the hood.
And this is the finish AFTER M105 and PFW. The M105/PFW combo leaves some swirls for sure. However, they are very fine and more importantly VERY uniform in depth. Given the severity of defects this combo removes the finish it leaves is remarkably good IMO:
The owner uses the two bucket method of washing with a grit guard and always hand washes. With this information I decided that a multi-step correction would be time well spent as I know the owner will do a good job maintaining the finish.
My process:
Wash with GC
Wheels with Wheel Brightener
Tires, wheel wells, and undercarriage with APC+ 4:1
Clay with mild blue and last touch 1:1
M105 via Makita @ 1200-1500-1200 and LC PFW pad
Ultimate Compound via DA @ speed 5 with Meguiar's yellow pad
M205 via DA @ speed 5 with Meguiar's Black pad
NXT via DA @ speed 3 with Meguiar's tan pad
Some befores:
Here you can see a couple holo's and while the paint has some shine it also lacks any real depth or sharpness of reflection
Some of the buffer swirls and deeper tick marks left by the dirty pad they used:
Car driven 3 hours for me to buff = BUGS!
Day one involved getting the car washed, clayed and multiple test spots.
Day two started with M105 via LC Purple Foamed Wool pads. The more I use these the more I like them. They are a good middle ground pad the removes defects better than foam polishing pads and leave the finish nicer than foam cutting pads.
In this shot the hood has been compounded while the fender has not. Raised areas of adjacent panels are taped off during compounding. In this particular case the fender has been taped where it meets the hood.
And this is the finish AFTER M105 and PFW. The M105/PFW combo leaves some swirls for sure. However, they are very fine and more importantly VERY uniform in depth. Given the severity of defects this combo removes the finish it leaves is remarkably good IMO:
